Shinro Ohtake

Shinro Ohtake turns 59 today. Born in 1955 in Tokyo, he now lives and works in Uwajima, Japan.

His work has been presented at documenta 13 and the 2013 Venice Biennale. His book collages have also appeared on the cover of Kristin Hersh’s first two solo releases (Hips and Makers, Strings) and The Throwing Muses’ University (deluxe edition). His graphics have been used for many other Hersh covers, including her autobiography Paradoxical Undressing.

Tucker Nichols | Topics of Conversation

Last week I posted an image from Tucker Nichols' Facebook page of a napkin he designed for a Pop-Up Magazine event in San Francisco, called Dinner. His Facebook post led to a series of inquiries about purchasing the napkins, so Pop Up Magazine has decided to edition the work, with the edition size based on orders before October 17th (so they can arrive in time for US Thanksgiving).

The napkins are 20" x 20" and 100% cotton, machine washable. A set of four is selling for $50 US (they're only available in the US) and can be purchased from Pop-Up, here.

Other Nichols works available include books from McSweeney's, here, a tea-towel from Headlands, here, notebooks from Plumb, here, and a suite of prints from Paul+Wendy Projects, here.

Jenny Holzer condom

Jenny Holzer
Untitled (Expiring For Love Is Beautiful But Stupid)
New York City, USA: Self-published, 1985
2 3/8 x 2 1/4”
Edition size unknown

A latex condom packaged in a tinfoil wrapper with printed text. I bought this copy from Art Metropole (years before I worked there) for a few dollars. They were sold out of a large jar dispenser, not unlike the way they would be sold at a store like the Condom Shack. They are next to impossible to find now.

Also available, at the time, was Protect Me From What I Want. A different series, with a clear plastic package, included other truisms, including Men Don't Protect You Anymore.

Hans-Peter Feldmann | Interview

Hans-Peter Feldmann/Hans Ulrich Obrist
Interview
Koln, Germany: Walther König, 2009
[130 pp], 22 x 16.56 cm. , softcover
Edition size unknown

Inspired by two very long conversations that he read when he was a student (between Pierre Cabanne and Marcel Duchamp, and David Sylvester and Francis Bacon) curator Hans Ulrich Obrist has been recording long interviews for many years, as part of an archive that refers to as "an endless conversation". More than 2000 hours have been recorded, with excerpts appearing in magazines such as Artforum and 032c.

The project also includes a series of books released under the banner "The Conversation Series". Almost thirty titles have been released thus far, with artists such as John Baldessari, Robert Crumb, Tacita Dean, Thomas Demand, Gibert and George, Zaha Hadid, Jeff Koons, and Yoko Ono.

This interview with Hans-Peter Feldmann takes a decidedly different format: Obrist poses the questions in writing and Feldmann answers with a picture.

Available from Amazon.com, here, for $38.13.


For a more traditional interview between Feldmann and Obrist, visit Vimeo, here.

Harry Ruhe's Vice-Versand shelf

"The first multiples I bought were in 1969, from Vice-Versand in Germany. They published multiples by Beuys, Filliou, and George Brecht, and they were all ten German marks. They were signed, but they were unlimited. The idea then was that the market would never get a grip on the price. Of course, it was fairly idealistic, in keeping with the mentality of the sixties. But I liked the idea of non-unique work very much, and also, I didn’t have so much money. For a little money you could get a fairly good artwork— because it was unlimited— and even now, I prefer artworks in an edition. If the quality is of interest, I prefer it to a unique work by the same artist. For instance, Beuys made a lot of multiples. I don’t like all of his multiples, but Beuys made a large number of fantastic things that one could buy for very little money. Like Intuition, the wooden box, which was also in the series by Vice-Versand, costing ten German marks then. It’s a lot more expensive now, of course."

- Harry Ruhé, interviewed in One For Me And One To Share: Artists Multiples and Editions

Above: Ruhé's Vice-Versand collection, in his Amsterdam home last month, including works by Ben Vautier, Nino Barbieri, Mauricio Kagel, George Brecht, Robert Filliou, George Brecht, Daniel Spoerri, Dieter Roth, Wolf Vostell and others.

Roy Lichtenstein | Modern Head Brooch

Roy Lichtenstein
Modern Head Brooch
New York City, USA: Multiples, Inc., 1968
7.11 x 4.06 cm.
Edition size unknown


“Roy Lichtenstein... did two intricate designs for a very beautiful little cloisonné enamel pin. Determined to sell them for twenty-five dollars each, so that everyone could afford one, we were somewhat dismayed to see the result of our virtually non-profit effort being bought and resold in   Europe for ten times the price.... Many [other] artists... were also interested in exploring this direction and in trying to determine whether there indeed was a large popular audience for collecting art.
We discovered that collecting was, however, still an elitist pursuit. I believe that this was the experience of many publishers, and the expansive notion of large editions was finally put to rest so that as a result, in the early seventies, the publishing world focused on smaller, and perhaps more personalized editions.”

- Marian Goodman

Available on Ebay, here, as part of a "summer blowout" for $8950.00 US.

Joseph Kosuth | Notebook on Water

Joseph Kosuth
Notebook on Water
New York City, USA: Multiples, Inc., 1970
[15] pp., 24.5 x 30.5 cm., loose cards in envelope
Edition of 1200

An artist's book composed of a 9 1/2 x 12" printed manila envelope containing loose leaves with definitions of water in its various states [liquid, vapor, ice], photographs, a folded map, and facsimiles of Kosuth's notebooks.

Originally published for inclusion in the "Artists & Photographs" box published by Marian Goodman's Multiples, Inc. The other works in the box include:

Mel Bochner's Misunderstandings (A Theory of Photography), Christo's Packed Tower, Spoleto, Italy 1968, Jan Dibbets' Perspective Correction 1967, Dan Graham's Two Parallel Essays, Douglas Huebler's Location Piece #2 : New York City – Seattle, Washington, Allan Kaprow's Pose,  Michael Kirby's Pont Neuf, Sol LeWitt's Schematic Drawing for Muybridge, Richard Long's Rain Dance, August 24, 1969. The Rift Valley, East Aftrica (A3/4 Mile Travelling Piece Documented by 4 Photographs), Robert Morris's Continuous Project Altered Daily, Bruce Nauman's LAAIR, Dennis Oppenheim's Flower Arrangement for Bruce Nauman, Robert Rauschenberg's Revolver (the rarest item of the set, frequently missing from 'near-complete' sets), Edward Ruscha's Babycakes With Weights, Robert Smithson's Torn Photograph, Bernar Venet's Exploited, and Andy Warhol's Portraits.

Available on Ebay, for 200 GBP, here.